[Ads-l] Antedating of "Moonwalk" (Backwards Dance Step)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Interesting topic, Fred.
The Wikipedia entry for "Moonwalk" states the following:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalk_(dance)

[Begin excerpt]
Jackson has been credited as renaming the "backslide" to the moonwalk
and it became his signature move. ...
Jackson first danced in public on March 25, 1983, during the
television special, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever,[24] in front
of a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The dance became
world-famous two months later when the show premised on television.
[End excerpt]

The Wikipedia article does not indicate when Michael Jackson renamed
the dance step to "moonwalk" although one of the items in the
bibliography might provide pertinent information.

Here is a 1982 citation which mentions a dance step called the
"moonwalk" performed by black children at a summer camp. This might be
a different dance step. The citation does not mention the backward
sliding motion characteristic of the modern sense. The term "moonwalk"
in the dance domain might have been ambiguous in the early 1980s.

Date: August 16, 1982
Newspaper: Boston Globe
Newspaper Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Article: Tradition of uniqueness at camp for black kids
Author: Joanne Ball (Contributing Reporter)
Start Page 13, Quote Page 14, Column ??
Database: ProQuest

[Begin excerpt]
At the end of a late-morning dance class, the campers attempted to
teach Instructor Gretchen Palmer the newest disco step, a robot-like
movement called the "moonwalk” or “the Rubik's cube."
[End excerpt]

Here is an unambiguous citation on October 15, 1983 which mentions the
backward motion.

Date: October 15, 1983
Newspaper: The Wichita Eagle-Beacon
Newspaper Location: Wichita, Kansas
Article: Young Dancers Pop and Break What a Feeling!
Author: Kathleen Rowe (Staff Writer)
Quote Page 3Z, Column 4
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-wichita-eagle-moonwalk/181237820/

[Begin excerpt]
They moved backwards for the "moon walk." They bent and popped their
joints for the "tic." They lay on the floor and rippled their bodies
like waves for the "atomic," also called the "tidal wave."
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 8:05 PM Shapiro, Fred
<00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> moonwalk (OED, backwards dance step, 1984)
>
> 1983 Denver Post 7 Oct. D1/5 (Genealogy Bank)  She's [Diana Ross] a legendary lady, and for every artistic slipup she's made, they paled next to the sight of her pulling a kid out of the audience to dance the "moonwalk" with her.
>
> 1983 New Pittsburgh Courier 22 Oct. 25 (ProQuest)  He learned the 'Moonwalk' and the 'Backslide' while mopping floors ... Those two dances are performed best by Michael Jackson and Shalamar's Jeffrey Daniels.  It's best described as a backward skating effect.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org